Recommended Posts

— Facing a tough re-election bid, Democratic 7th District Congressman Mike McIntyre said Wednesday that he won't seek a 10th term in the U.S. House in November.

McIntyre narrowly won the 2012 election over former state Sen. David Rouzer in a district that was redrawn by Republican lawmakers in 2011 to be more friendly to Republican candidates. The district stretches southeast from Johnston County to the coast.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

"McIntyre narrowly won the 2012 election over former state Sen. David Rouzer in a district that was redrawn by Republican lawmakers in 2011 to be more friendly to Republican candidates. The district stretches southeast from Johnston County to the coast."

Translation: Gerrymandering

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

"McIntyre narrowly won the 2012 election over former state Sen. David Rouzer in a district that was redrawn by Republican lawmakers in 2011 to be more friendly to Republican candidates. The district stretches southeast from Johnston County to the coast."

Here it is: The most ridiculous congressional district in the entire country. No, you’re not looking at two districts; IL-4 has two absurdly gerrymandered halves held together by a thin strip of land at its western edge that is nothing more than the median strip along Interstate Highway 294. The end result is a gerrymandered gerrymander, a complete mockery of what congressional representation is even supposed to be. As with AZ-2, the intention behind IL-4 was to create an ethnic enclave, in this case an Hispanic-majority district within an otherwise overwhelmingly non-Hispanic Chicago. Problem is, Chicago has two completely distinct and geographically separate Hispanic neighborhoods — one Puerto Rican, the other Mexican — but neither is large enough to constitute a district majority on its own. Solution? Lump all Hispanics together into a supposedly coherent cultural grouping, and then carefully draw a line surrounding every single Hispanic household in Chicago, linking the two distant neighborhoods by means of an uninhabited highway margin. Voila! One Hispanic congressperson, by design. And as a side-effect, the most preposterous congressional district in the United States.